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ZICKLIN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

BARUCH COLLEGE/CUNY

MKT 9750: Marketing Strategy, FALL 2016

Section QTRA, TTh 7:30PM to 8:45PM

VC 10-135

Adjunct Lecturer:         David Hymson

E-Mail:                  David.Hymson@baruch.cuny.edu

Office Hours:             Tuesday and Thursday, 6:00PM to 7:15PM or by appointment

Office Location:          12-210-1

Mobile Phone:              646-915-7363

Important Notes:

The syllabus for this course is a working syllabus. That means it is always subject to change. Therefore, if you must miss class, it is your responsibility to keep up to date by either contacting one of your classmates or me.

In addition to being an adjunct lecturer, I’m also a full-time marketing strategist for a New York-based advertising agency.  Occasionally, business demands require me to travel, often with just a day’s notice, which means some classes may be cancelled.  If I cannot find a suitable substitute, I will give you an online assignment that will count towards your class participation grade.  I’ll inform you of class cancellations and assignments via Blackboard announcements so monitor them regularly.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Strategy is a much used, and very often misused, term in business.  For our purposes, marketing strategy will refer to the creation of a roadmap for a brand – the direction it must take to be successful in the market.  It answers the question, “what should we do?”  The course brings together all fields of marketing, particularly analysis and problem solving, to craft solutions to strategic-level marketing challenges, from the perspective of a senior marketing executive or consultant.

Strategy is often confused with tactics which are the activities a marketer undertakes to accomplish a strategy.  You’ve explored tactics in your pre-requisite marketing courses: TV and radio commercials, print advertising, direct mail, online banner and search engine marketing, personal selling, and other ways to reach your customers.  In this course we will focus on the strategies that engender these tactics, the reasons we employ them, rather than the tactics themselves.

Objectives, which are measurable brand goals, are often also often mislabeled or misstated as strategies.  Increase revenue, maximize share, improve profitability are brand goals.  Strategies, which we will explore, are the ways to achieve these goals.

In an ideal world, at the end of this semester we will have prepared a classroom-full of marketing strategists who will show the business world how marketing can drive business success, in a meaningful and measurable way.

KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The specific course objectives will be to prepare you to:

1. Understand where critical business and marketing issues intersect
2. Gather and analyze key information in a time- and resource constrained environment
3. In a confident and compelling manner, make strategic marketing recommendations to solve the business issue at hand

COURSE FORMAT

The course combines lectures with small group and full class discussions, exercises and case analysis.  All are aimed at bringing a real world perspective to the subject matter.  Most classes will focus around some pre-reading, a case, an article, or a textbook chapter.  You will get the most out of this course if you prepare for each class by attentively reading the assigned material.  

For now, bear this in mind – marketing strategy is not a place for uninformed opinion.  Whether you like a certain TV commercial or not, think a product is good or not, or believe because you watch all your TV via Hulu then the whole world must too exactly as you do, is completely beside the point.  As a strategist in the real world, making these sorts of pronouncements can damage your professional credibility.  As a student in this course (or in the real world), it won’t help you either.  Being a fact-based, industry-aware, metrics-driven strategist is a better path to success.

COURSE MATERIALS

1.  Required textbook (available in bookstore or online)

Title:  Marketing Strategy: A Decision-Focused Approach (8th Edition, 2013)

2.   Required case readings available from Harvard Business School publishing (http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/51800185).  

3.  PPT Presentations and assorted readings (Blackboard)

BLACKBOARD WEBSITE

Please check this website weekly for assignments, copies of lecture notes, and other course news.  

COURSE GRADING

The course will be graded as follows:

Individual case reports (2)                                   40%

In class, group strategy challenges (2)                   20%

Final group project                                           25%                                                

Class Participation                                      15%

Total                                 100%                                        

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